Experimental studies on AZ31 magnesium sheets processed by continuous extrusion

Abstract:

In this study, the magnesium sheets in size of 160mm×8mm, 170mm×4mm and 160mm×3mm were processed experimentally by using continuous extrusion method with single and double rod modes. The influence of the process conditions, including feeding modes (single and double rod), width thickness radio and extrusion speed on the forming abilities, the microstructure distributions and the mechanical properties of the AZ31 magnesium sheets were examined. As a result, the microstructure distributions in cross-section of the sheets processed by the double rod mode show more homogeneous, comparing with the sheets processed by the single rod mode. The average tensile strength was up to 239MPa and the average elongation was 15%.The magnesium sheets with refined grains were obtained when the width thickness radio was improved to be 53.The tensile strength of AZ31 sheets decreased with increasing the wheel speed. This is because higher temperature generally leads to larger grain size.